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Culture
Riders
in traditional dress demonstrate Kazakhstan's equestrian
culture by playing a kissing
game, Kyz kuu
("Chase the Girl"), one of a number of traditional games
played on horseback.[47]
Before the Russian colonization, the Kazakhs had a highly developed culture based on their nomadic pastoral economy. Although Islam was introduced to most of the Kazakhs in the fifteenth century, the religion was not fully assimilated until much later. As a result, it coexisted with earlier elements of Tengriism. Traditional Kazakh belief held that separate spirits inhabited and animated the earth, sky, water and fire, as well as domestic animals. To this day, particularly honored guests in rural settings are treated to a feast of freshly killed lamb. Such guests are sometimes asked to bless the lamb and to ask its spirit for permission to partake of its flesh. Besides lamb, many other traditional foods retain symbolic value in Kazakh culture. |
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In the national cuisine, livestock meat can be
cooked in a variety of ways and is usually served with a wide assortment
of traditional bread products. Refreshments often include black tea and
traditional milk-derived drinks such as ayran,
shubat and kymyz.
A traditional Kazakh dinner involves a multitude of appetisers on the
table, followed by a soup and one or two main courses such as pilaf
and beshbarmak. They
also drink their national beverage, which consists of fermented mare's
milk.
Because livestock was central to the Kazakhs' traditional lifestyle, most of their nomadic practices and customs relate in some way to livestock. Kazakhs have historically been very passionate about horse-riding. Traditional curses and blessings invoked disease or fecundity among animals, and good manners required that a person ask first about the health of a man's livestock when greeting him and only afterward inquire about the human aspects of his life. Even today, many Kazakhs express interest in equestrianism and horse-racing. Kazakhstan is home to a large number of prominent contributors to literature, science and philosophy: Abay Qunanbayuli, Al-Farabi, Mukhtar Auezov, Gabit Musirepov, Kanysh Satpayev, Mukhtar Shakhanov, Saken Seyfullin, Jambyl Jabayev, among many others. Kazakhstan has developed itself as a formidable sports-force on the world arena in the following fields: boxing, chess, kickboxing, skiing, gymnastics, water-polo, cycling, martial arts, heavy-athletics, horse-riding, tri-athlon, track-hurdles, sambo, greco-roman wrestling and billiards. The following are all well-known Kazakhstani athletes and world-championship medalists: Bekzat Sattarkhanov, Vassiliy Jirov, Alexander Vinokourov, Bulat Jumadilov, Mukhtarkhan Dildabekov, Olga Shishigina, Andrey Kashechkin, Aliya Yussupova, Dmitriy Karpov, Darmen Sadvakasov, Yeldos Ikhsangaliyev, Aidar Kabimollayev, Yermakhan Ibraimov, Vladimir Smirnov, among others. Kazakhstan features a lively music culture, evident in massive popularity of SuperStar KZ, a local offspring of Simon Fuller's Pop Idol. Almaty is considered to be the musical capital of the Central Asia, recently enjoying concerts by well-known artists such as Deep Purple, Tokio Hotel, Atomic Kitten, Dima Bilan, Loon, Craig David, The Black Eyed Peas, Eros Ramazzotti, José Carreras, Ace of Base, among others. During the recent years, Kazakhstan has experienced somewhat of a revival of the Kazakh language,[48] which is returning into mainstream usage both in media, law and business, as well as the general society. This is widely approved by Kazakh people and the international organizations as a way of preserving the national identity and culture[citation needed], but has in some cases caused anxiety among Russian-Kazakhstanis, Russia-sponsored special-interest groups in Kazakhstan and some high-ranking politicians in Russia[citation needed]. The Parliament is considering the introduction of Latin-based Kazakh alphabet to replace Cyrillic-based. The reasons that are popularly cited are cultural considerations[citation needed] and the Turkic nature of the Kazakh language. Turkic languages such as Turkish and Uzbek use the Latin alphabet. However, the imposition of the Latin alphabet in Kazakhstan would involve massive costs of transcription and replacement of the vast Kazakh literature
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Marat Makhanov maratmakhanov@mail.ru 2010 |
